The Internet is a mostly anonymous channel. Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) cookies, referred to herein as cookies, are small text files on a user's computer which may be used by web servers to differentiate users and to maintain data related to the user during navigation, possibly across multiple visits.
A cookie may be used to identify a user of an individual website without the user logging on to the website with their credentials or otherwise authenticating their identity. However, cookies are not secure, may be stolen, and do not always accurately identify users. Therefore, a website may not offer personalized information to a user based on the cookie on the user's computer, because of the risk that the user identified by the cookie is not the user who is actually visiting the website.